From Pope to Pope

I was recently looking through older materials in various places, and discovered afresh a blog entry (on LiveJournal) I made a few days before Ratzinger was elected, to the unbelief of many, as Pope. I too had assumed someone else would be elected, but it struck me that one of the things I actually got right was more than the name he chose (which I wrote on the 17th April 2005 as ‘Benedictus XVI’). Just in case LiveJournal heads the way of GeoCities, here is what I wrote back then:

I write here, however, to reflect on what are some of the changes I would like to see in the Church by this new Pope, who I have titled Benedictus XVI.

The first of these is an open acknowledgement of early priests and bishops who were women. If the evidence is there, then honesty needs to be brought to the fore. Without this honesty, there cannot be an acceptance for the Church as honestly representing Christ – for whom, in my own peculiar manner, consider that Truth be an important theological component.

The next is on the marriage of priests. There are no grounds that justify the exclusion of priests from being married, and on the contrary historical evidence to suggest that in early days, priestsought to be married. The Orthodox, as well as others, in any case show that this is not a problem.

With regards to sexuality, one important change that needs to occur is a recognition of the sublimity of the union of two individuals in the act. The act itself is not to be considered for the purposesof procreation, but rather as joining together or two individuals. The pro-creative aspect of the act is of course also to be recognised, but not over and above the mystical-like state it may engender, and the health-giving aspects, of the union.

Finally, with regards to the ordination of women, this seems to me time that this be permitted. That some countries would not accept such is their problem. In such congregations, what would result is that people would flock instead to a nearby church – and then, so be it.

The next twenty years need to bring to the Church some serious spiritual awareness, rather than dogma as dogma.

It seems striking that the direction taken under Benedict XVI is the exact opposite of what was needed… unless we surmise that the Holy Spirit works in rather more than strange and mysterious ways.

The purpose of this post, however, is also to consider what is likely to come rather quickly and unexpectedly – not because the current Pope is ill (he does not appear to be), nor too aged (after all, in good health, he may last another twenty years or more), but rather more of a sense that ‘time is nigh’.

And on this, my concern is on the prominence and even possible likely candidature of Cardinal Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert von Schönborn… who may very well regard himself as inheritor of the Holy Roman Empire and even declare himself as Petrus II !